Litchfield Panel Grants Chabad Permission to Use Building

LITCHFIELD, CT — Chabad Lubavitch, a non-profit, Orthodox Jewish group seeking to move its synagogue into a building at 85 West St. in the historic town center, has made it over one hurdle.

At the Thursday night meeting of the Litchfield Borough Historic District the group was granted an application of appropriateness.

What this means is that the basic layout of the facility does not infringe on the Borough’s idea of how the exterior of buildings in the historic district should look.

Curtis Jones of Civil Engineers provided amended plans for the second time. He earlier presented the plans at an April 19 meeting. The newest changes include reducing the size of the signage by over 1/3, and the moving of the driveway closer to the building while increasing it to about 10 feet. This makes way for a six foot grass island.

These go hand in hand with the changes Jones listed on April 19, which included the reconstruction and expansion of the paved driveway and parking area, converting some of the driveway to lawn, putting in a new driveway exit, a new “do not enter” sign and new shrubs.

Four new outdoor lights would be added to the parking area, as well as two red oak trees to replace the Japanese maple in the rear of the property.

Jones said in April that the existing structure will stay exactly as it is, but that Chabad is proposing a change of use to religious use.

Meanwhile, Chabad is also engaged in the appeal in its pending religious discrimination federal lawsuit against Historic District Commission, an entity of the Litchfield Borough, which is a sub-layer of government in town that oversees the Litchfield Green, sidewalks and street lights in the square-mile borough and other issues.

Chabad filed the suit in federal court after an initial proposal, which would have increased the size of the property from roughly 2,500 square feet to 20,000 square feet, was denied by the commission, which ruled it was not in keeping with the character of the building or the borough.

Chabad’s federal suit claims the borough government’s actions violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.

The hearing with Planning and Zoning is scheduled for May 20, having been rescheduled in mid-April.